TV Turnoff Week & AYRA

The last two weeks of April were busy ones in the library. We celebrated TV Turnoff Week and were thrilled to have so much participation. The kids were challenged to turn off their TV for as many days as they could during the week. Each day that they stayed away from TV they filled in a form, had their parents sign it and exchanged it for a prize at school the next day. Ask your children about our Big Blue Wall and how big it grew!

In the library this week we read many different stories to different grades. The younger kids heard Penny Lee and her TV by Glenn McCoy and The Day the TV Blew Up by Dan West. Some of them heard Library Lil by Suzanne Williams. This is a great tall tale about a woman who is determined to turn the people of her town into readers.

The older kids heard The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg. This is one of my favorite stories because the kids have to work to figure out the whole story. Mr. Van Allsburg never shows them this "wretched stone" so they must use their imagination and their personal experience to decide what the stone is. Ask your kids what they thought the stone was and how it compared to what I thought.

We also spent a little time in each class talking about things we could do besides watching tv. It was great to hear so many creative ways that children spend time unplugged.

The last week in April was our final week to check out books this year. We used the time to catch up on our Arizona Young Reader Award nominees so we could make sure all the classes had heard all the stories before voting next week. Some classes heard The Dark and Mud Puddle by one of my favorite authors, Robert Munsch. We also read Superdog by Caralyn Buehner and There's Nothing to Do on Mars by Chris Gall. Chris Gall is a new author/illustrator who produces some really visually interesting books. I think we'll hear a lot more from him in the future.

Next month we'll choose our favorite AYRA book, do our 2nd library relay and talk about summer reading!